Kuyasa Library Complex

2013-2016

Project Team:

Client: City of Cape Town/SUN

Contractor: Group Five

QS: Talani Quantity Surveyors

Landscape Architect: TKLA

Structural Engineer: De Villiers Sheard cc

Electrical Engineer: B2A Consulting Engineers

Context and Brief:

The new Kuyasa Regional Library Complex forms part of the larger Kuyasa Station Precinct development. The Precinct is envisaged as a higher order node in Khayelitsha where proposed facilities should not only serve the needs of the local residents but also surrounding areas of Khayelitsha. The Development Framework has been designed using the VPUU UD Safety Principles and Design Tools for a Safe Neighbourhood.

The design of the new Kuyasa Regional Library Complex was a highly collaborative process between CCNIA, TKLA and SUN. It positions itself firmly within the existing public square that was designed as part of the Kuyasa Public Transport Interchange by Meyer Vorster in 2012.

An intention of the project is to reinforce the notion of a multi-storey typology, beginning to take shape in Khayelitsha. A point of difference with this project is the desire to embed the possibility of a mixed-use city-natured project within our everyday environment, with living, working, learning and shopping happening in an integrated manner.

The project comprises retail on the ground floor, with a Regional library, meeting and training rooms, 2 apartments and Sub Council offices over the next two levels. The retail spaces have the possibility of accommodating a variety of scaled shops. The role of the Library Complex is to activate and populate the existing square and new pedestrian link to the north. This is achieved through a series of balconies and large glazed screens that bring programme and activity to the facades of the building.

Intention:

The mass of the building is fragmented by different scaled geometric planes that privilege the human scale, with the intention of settling the building into the square, as opposed to setting it apart as an object to be viewed from a distance. The main entrance takes on the scale of the collective, and links through to a more private green court, which offers protection from wind. This courtyard is overlooked by the library and offices, with the trees and greenery as respite.